Ruth Gordon`s Energy, Talent Will Be Missed

August 30, 1985|By Candice Russell, Staff writer

Ruth Gordon, more than any other actress, epitomized the buoyancy of growing old. It was reflected in her movies like Where`s Poppa, Any Which Way You Can and Harold and Maude, in which she played an octogenarian who imbues a depressed young man with the joy of living. There were no rocking chair scenes in her movies, no lachrymose discourses on the horrors of aging. That`s why it is so hard to believe that she died this week at 88.

On television talk shows, chatting with Merv Griffin or some other host, she always seemed a generation or two younger than she was. Her literate conversation about current and future projects and her gifts as a raconteur made her a popular guest. With a career that spanned silent movies to TV, the Broadway and London`s West End, Gordon saw the transformation of the entertainment business and found a niche for herself in each medium. Her marriage to writer Garson Kanin resulted in several collaborations, including the films Pat and Mike and Adam`s Rib. This fall she`ll be represented onscreen with a new movie, Maxie, opposite Glenn Close.

While future generations will have her film performances to remember, the rest of us who were lucky enough to be her contemporaries will also remember her spunk and her wit. Ruth Gordon was an original.

`SPIDER WOMAN` OPENS

Responding to the tastes of the community, theater owner Carlos Cyrulnik is hosting an International Gay Film Series at the Manor Art Cinema from now through January. It seems especially appropriate in light of the fact that Broward County has one of the largest gay populations in the country. The series reflects the increasing allure of homosexual and lesbian lifestyles to directors both in and out of the cinematic mainstream.

The prize peach of the entire series is Kiss of the Spider Woman with Raul Julia, William Hurt and Sonia Braga, an English-language film directed by Hector Babenco (maker of the excellent film about lost children, Pixote). It opens on Sept. 13 in a dual booking with the Riviera Theater in Dade County`s Coral Gables. The art film hit of the summer, Kiss of the Spider Woman is set in a Latin American prison cell and adapted from a novel by Manuel Puig. Hurt was recently named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance.

Drifting, the first openly male gay Israeli movie, is currently being shown Friday through Sunday at 10:45 p.m. only and at 9:30 p.m. on weeknights. The rerelease of Liquid Sky, an off-the-wall science fiction fantasy with a gay theme, follows it. Next is Ernesto, an Italian film with Virna Lisi and Michel Placido. In October look for Abuse, an American film starring Richard Ryder.

The lineup continues chronologically with Beyond Good and Evil, an American film directed by Liliana Cavani and starring Dominique Sanda. The Danish You Are Not Alone and the American Bigger Splash are next. The rerelease of Lianna, independent writer-director John Sayles` controversial film about a married woman`s realization that she is gay, will be followed by Taxi Zum Klo, Frank Ripploh`s film about two West German men struggling to have a monogamous relationship. The last three titles in the series so far are Scrubbers, a Swedish film directed by Mai Zetterling, Cafe Flesh from New Zealand, and the American film Squeeze.

Except for Kiss of the Spider Woman, which will have a regular run for every afternoon and evening slot, all films will be shown only once per day in late evening. Admission is $3 for senior citizens and $4.50 for everyone else. The Manor is at 1444 NE 26th St., Wilton Manors.

PERFORMANCE ART, ANYONE?

Before John Lennon took up with Yoko Ono, no one knew what performance art was. With the evaporation of those peace, love and happiness times, performance art has largely gone the way of bell-bottom pants. Marilyn

Gottlieb-Roberts, an arts professor at Miami-Dade Community College, doesn`t care a whit for the tides of fashion and to prove it she has been involved for the past year with a performance art show called Gathering Evidence. She describes it as a ``traveling, cumulative, interactive arts project`` in which she links up with 30 collaborators in 10 Southeastern cities. For the past year she has accumulated ``artifacts of habit, opinion and art to connect participant places and persons.`` The impetus of the project was associations to the myth and times of the early Bronze Age hero Perseus.

That explanation probably does no justice to the show, which sounds like a cultural mirror of the times. Curious? Then check out Gathering Evidence Sept. 6 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the atrium of the Wolfson Campus of Miami-Dade Community College and the Art Gallery of Broward Community College, Fort Lauderdale.

The project that night will include Xerox oracle readings by Gottlieb- Roberts and Ann Reaben Prosper, sound environment and video-computer images. A networking workshop is scheduled for Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 2106 of the Wolfson campus of MDCC, hosted by Juan Martinez, arts department chairman, and the Women`s Caucus for Art Florida Chapter.